The disclosed aspects relate generally to communications between and/or within devices and specifically to methods and systems for improving peer communications through use of an active communication mode.
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paging devices that are each small, lightweight, and can be easily carried by users. More specifically, the portable wireless telephones, for example, further include cellular telephones that communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such cellular telephones are being manufactured with relatively large increases in computing capabilities, and as such, are becoming tantamount to small personal computers and hand-held PDAs. Further, such devices are being manufactured to enable communications using a variety of frequencies and applicable coverage areas, such as cellular communications, wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, near field communication (NFC), etc.
NFC enabled devices may operation in a polling mode and/or a listening mode. When operating in a polling mode a device generates an RF carrier that can supply energy to a remote device. The polling device may modulate the RF carrier appropriately in order to begin communication with the remote device. When operating in a listening mode a device does not generate any RF carrier, but when exposed to a carrier from a remote device, the device may harvest energy from the field, and decode the incoming modulation to begin communication. Once communications have been established, the peer devices remain fixed in their respective polling or listening modes. Such communications are referred to as passive communications (e.g., ISO 18092 Passive Communication).
Version 1.0 of the NFC Forum “Digital Protocol” specification includes only the Passive Communication Mode as defined in ISO/IEC 18092. Whilst this does allow the operation of NFC-DEP protocol, it has distinct problems for implementation in handheld NFC devices. Firstly, because in Passive Communication Mode, the carrier must remain on continuously, a large amount of power may be wasted while the two devices are processing the information exchanged between them even if there is no content actually be communicated. Secondly, the power consumption is not shared evenly between the two devices. One will be generating a field all the time, and the other will only use load modulation to respond to commands. Thirdly, Passive Communication Mode has limitations in features such as a limitation on data rate to 424 kbps and lower, and inability to perform multi-activation
Thus, improved apparatus and methods for providing peer communications between NFC enabled device using active mode communications may be desired.